New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-01-19
patronage has so materially sustained and On
couraged yachting.
COPYRIGHT AGAIN.

The American Copyright League is trying to
have the Hawley bill for the establishment OF
international Copyright reported to the Sem
ate in order tina. at least the people and their
representatives at Washington may fully I'M
derstand what it is that the friends of Amer-
can literature and American fair play are ask
ing for After the famous arguments OF Mr.
j. r. Lowell and Others before the Senate Com
mttec on Patents at the last session, and the
lively demonstration by the press and the authors
in favor of the Hawley measure, or something
equivalent to it, the committee dealt the prom
ising reform staggering blow by reporting,
instead of the project asked for, bill draftcd
by one of its own members Mr.. Chace, avow-
edly in the interest of the very class against
which the authors sought protection. Inc
Hawlcy bill YVES simple measure of rcciproci-
ty, securing identical rights TO Americans in
foreign countries and to foreigners in this
country, and it rested upon the principle that
literary productions are property and entitled
to defence against unauthorized appropriation.
Mr.. Chacc on the contrary, declared that our
paramount duty was not to protect the authors
against their plunderrs, but to protect the
"vcstcd interests Of the plundcrcrs in the
goods which they had stolen. He devised
bill, therefore, which, by narrow time clause
a manufacturing clause and non-mpOrtatlon
clause, tool, excellent first Of all of the blisl-
ness of rcprinting; any slight advantage which
might afterward incidentally accrue to the
authors was subordinate to that "rara-
mount" concern for the material industry,
American authors would obtain no protection
abroad under his bill, the provision for recip-
rocity being wholly abandoned and the benc-
fit procurablc for them at home would lie very
slight and uncertain.
There was a sort Of brutal irony in such an
answer to the petition of the authors. Possibly
neither Mr.. Chacc nor the Senators who voted
with him realized how cynical their action
seemed. But Mr.. Chace, as he showed in a
letter to THE TRIBUNE when VIC criticised his
bill last May, differs radically from the friends
Of copyright with regard to the nature OF liter
aiy property. The author. he thinks, has an
inherent right only TO the material substance
Of book as a chattel, not to the ideas and ar
rangcmcnt Of language by which the book has
been crcacd-to the paper and ink, value few
shillings, whereby he puts his thoughts on
record, not TO the thought and invention, value
many thousands of dollars, for the sake OF
which the paper and Ink arc used. thief
therefore, who steals the ma cral book commits
petty larceny but literary pirate" who steals
the thought and language Of the book, and sells
them for his own benefit. commits no offence
in law or morals. Copyright, under this theory,
is not the recognition of property right, but
legislative bcncvolcncc, privilege which the
State may justly give or withhold at It's pleasure.
These are the notions of a state Of scml-ciy-
ilization. They have been contradictcd so often
by the highest legal authorities that 1T would
seem almost supcriluous to argue against them
at this age of the world. In every discussion
Of the copyright question there are some truths
which we are justified in regarding as settled.
1t is discouraging to find that the Senate Com
mittcc on Patents does not consider the right
Of property in ideas TO bc one Of them. We
trust that the request of the American Copy
right League. for an exhibition Of the two bills
side by side, may be promptly complied with.
so that Congress may have all possible light TO
determine whether an authors natural right TO
his book is right TO the thought or q right
10 the DaDcr.